The invention relates to a continuous microfilm camera for transporting original sheets to a picture-taking area and placing same in position.
Microfilm cameras are known which have a transport path for original sheets passing a picture-taking area. In the area of the taking of the picture, the original sheets are placed between two guide plates providing a transit slit of variable width and being held together by spring forces. At least one of the plates is transparent and at least one of the plates is movable.
Such guiding plates are necessary for transporting mechanically unstable sheets such as onion skin, thin airmail paper, foils, etc., safely into the picture-taking plane. In case several originals are transported simultaneously through the apparatus and in order to avoid sheet accumulation at the entrance of the very narrow transit slit, a prior art apparatus is provided with guide plates held together with springs attached to the plates and movably mounted for motion relative to each other. It is the purpose of this arrangement to provide for the simultaneous transit of several sheets by pressing apart the guide plates and to permit an orderly transit through the apparatus. A disadvantage of this arrangement is the increase in spring force with increasing distance of the guiding plates. The increase in the spring force as the slit width increases leads to such a large pressure of the guide plates on the passing original sheets that it tends to cause a jamming of the sheets.